Waves
by Tie knots
Summary: Finnick and Annie both were born and raised at District 4, in Panem. Both were into The Hunger Games. Both survived. They fell in love in a mighty world. Will they keep on against all the odds?
1. Net of Vines

**Hello! This is a brand new fanfiction about Finnick and Annie and their story. I'm Brazilian so my English is not the best, and that's why I asked a few people to revise it for me and they helped me with grammar, vocabulary and everything else!**

**Thank you **iloovecheesebuns**,** thebloodbath **and** delanieinwonderland**! Also, follow them, they're awesome.**

**Hope you enjoy and review please!**

**•**

After a week, his hands were covered with calluses. The Arena was better than he had expected : a big lake, with cool, drinkable water; warm weather; mountains that surrounded the place, and a huge forest with plenty of animals and fruits. The vines of the trees, though, were covered in thorns, which cut through the thin skin of his palms. But he would still use them, because after a few tests he was sure the vines were strong enough to resist the cut of a knife or anything else.

Finnick Odair had been doing this net of vines since he had first entered the Arena. Coming from District 4, he was great at tying knots, he was well practiced from those days when he had to mend the nets of old ropes or sailing activities.

For the first days he was united with the Careers from Districts 1, 2 and the female tribute from 4. They thought his activity of making the net was just an innocent act of jitters; after all, even the ones who seemed the strongest were emotionally weak during the Games.

And Finnick was surely the one tribute who conquered the love of the Capitol with his good looks, sympathy and sense of humor. His success during the training days had acquired him an invitation to join the Careers on the second day.

He didn't really trust them, Careers were usually very competitive and being around them would mean a stab in the back sooner or later. But starting the Games alone wasn't a good option.

So he went around with the group for the first 4 days, killing other tributes, stealing supplies and surrounding the lake and the Cornucopia. But after he received his precious trident, he decided it was time to leave.

After a huge fight with the girl from District 2 and both fro

m 1, he escaped to the forest, bleeding and badly injured. But he wasn't just a pretty face — he had knowledge from herbs that he learned at the training sessions, and made curatives.

Now, the net was almost finished and it was time to end the Games. The Careers would come looking for him sooner or later after all, since they were the only ones left. He prepared the net on the ground to catch the person who stepped on it, covering it with foliage to camouflage.

Finnick didn't have much to get the attention of the Careers, so he used a simple strategy: lighting a fire. They should be really stupid if they thought he would be stupid enough to do something as stupid as this. But soon enough, they came for him.

Trident in hand, he stood a little bit ahead of the net, knowing the tributes would come from that direction because the lake was there.

"Well, hello there," He said as the Careers appeared, looking suspicious but at the same time victorious.

"Finnick." The boy from 1 growled.

"Yes, that's my name," He replied, playing with his trident. "So I heard you want to slaughter me?"

"News travels fast around here." The girl from 1 said before launching forward along with the other two tributes. It was funny how they all stepped at the trap at the same time, and the net confined them all together, dropping them to the ground.

They looked supicious since they were only entwined in vines that could be cut with a simple knife that the girl from 2 carried. But Finnick just watched as she tried to rip the vines, smirking.

"I guess I'll just end this once and for all." He said, and threw his trident, spearing the girl from 1. She screamed, but the net was too tight for her or any other of them to try to take the trident out of her stomach.

But Finnick did it for her, and speared her again, and again, and again. The blood splattered all over them, and the Careers could do nothing but watch hopelessly. Soon, she was dead and the cannon sounded.

The boy, who carried an ax, also tried to rip the vines but with no success. He just threw it at Finnick, who caught it easily with one hand.

"So that's the best you can do? I expected more from a career." And sank his trident into the boy's chest, knowing he had pierced his heart and killing him instantly. Another cannon.

He couldn't show it, but being a killer was consuming him. The smell of blood, the dead bodies, the drops on the tips of his trident… And the low whimper from the girl from 2, even though she tried to hide it, not to look weak.

Unprepared, he was caught by surprise when she threw her knife at him, and it found a place in his stomach. He shouldn't have stood so close. She reached up with her arm and gripped the handle, sinking it more into his flesh. He moaned with pain, falling to his knees. She took the knife out and aimed at his heart. A few inches forward and he was dead.

But, before she could thrust the knife any furthur, he gripped her wrist with a bloody hand, breaking it with one swift movement. She cried, her hand in a grotesque angle. He didn't wait: He found his trident right behind him and grabbed it, raising it above his head.

She looked right into his eyes, pleading for mercy. She didn't have mercy when aiming at his heart. Bringing down his trident with hate for the Capitol, he pierced her neck, gushes of blood running down her back. Twisted it, moved it, tearing, ripping, killing.

The cannon blasted.


	2. Ready for Slaughter

**Hey, thanks for keeping up with the fanfic, if you're reading this! This second chapter is smaller but the third one will be bigger (: Please keep reviewing!**

**•**

The day was stormy. Dark, full clouds were hiding the pale blue that usually filled the sky of District 4. You could see a storm arriving if you looked beyond the ocean. The wind was violent, shaking boats and dropping the temperature.

People filled the enormous square, built with the purpose of containing the citizens of District 4 during the Reaping. It was a crowd, but every single person had fallen in deep silence as they always did on this day, every year.

Today, two people were being taken to the Capitol, and finally to the Arena, where they'd probably not come back from. District 4 had actually had a lot of victors because their tributes would usually ally with the Careers. But that year only two of them were alive: Mags, an old lady who won in the early Games. She was about 60 years old. And Finnick, who had won only 5 years ago when he was 14 years old.

The future mentors would always sit at the temporary stage built for the Reaping. Finnick and Mags were sitting on two folding chairs, and right next to them was Viveca Osma, the escort of the District. Most of the escorts had that Capitol look, with hairs dyed in shocking colors, big eyes, weird clothes and an eccentric and annoying personality.

But Viveca was different. She wore fancy but less freaky clothes, such as a grey social jacket, a skirt that reached down until the knees and a formal shirt, with high heels that didn't make her look superficial. Her hair was straight until it reached the tips, then curling up. It was light brown and stopped at her shoulders. Her severe green eyes were always behind red, pointy glasses.

Pisces Quade, the mayor of District 4, spoke in the microphone, telling everyone what they already knew: About the Dark Days and how the Hunger Games were created to punish the rebels. Finished the speech, he occupied the empty seat next to Viveca. She stood and walked straight to the crystal balls at the center of the stage.

They were bigger than the ones from other Districts, since the population in District 4 was big. Dipping her bony hand into one of them, Viveca reached for a paper at the bottom of the ball. She straightened it and read passively:

"Annie Cresta."

A young girl rose from the crowd as all heads turned to her. It took her some time to let her hand slip from the grip of her mother, who looked concerned. She walked to the empty pathway that leaded to the stage, her steps echoing around the square. Calm down, Annie. Calm down, she thought to herself. Her blue dress danced with the wind along with her dark wavy hair. She was dizzy, her sea-green eyes lost at the crowd that looked at her as if looking at a pig ready for slaughter.

They were right, though. She was weak and small. She had only a little experience, and it'd only be useful if there was a sea. She'd probably die in seconds.

The odds were not in her favor.


	3. View of the Sea

What impressed Annie the most was the fact nobody volunteered for her. Not that she thought there was anyone willing to spare their life. The only person she was truly close to was her mother, and she was past the age to volunteer. But District 4 was full of people who could be a Career and even trained for this. Still they let her go, much weaker than most.

She walked onto the stage, limbs shaking. Mags and Finnick watched her carefully, analyzing her. Annie imagined how it must be like, to every year watch two kids you had the responsibility to train and maintain alive being murdered. She wouldn't have been able to bear it.

Viveca only nodded at Annie, quickly walking towards the crystal ball with the names of the boys. She picked a paper at the middle this time, reading it with the same indifferent tone.

"Meris Holt."

A boy made his way through the crowd that surrounded him. He was about 14 years old, one year younger than Annie. His black hair was longer than usual, to his shoulders, messy. His eyes were extremely blue, and you could capture the fear in them even though he tried to look fierce.

Were her ears tricking her or did Annie hear a few sighs of relief? Yes, people were relieved someone like Meris was picked. He wasn't strong, but he was tall and if he trained he could be tough. Basically, people thought District 4 could have a winner this year. And they were right.

Just from watching him walking to take his place next to her, Annie realized he would work hard to win, because of his will to make a good appearance.

But she also heard high-pitched cries and sobs. Possibly his family and friends. Maybe he was popular around the District. Yes, Annie had seen him walking on the streets every now and then, carrying a box of fishes and being friendly to people.

They looked at each other and she couldn't find what he thought about her, not a single hint in his eyes or facial expressions. They shook hands briefly and broke apart. Soon enough, both were taken to the prefecture.

The building was built with a bluish stone that reminded the sea, with details ingraved onto it. Fishes, boats, coral. But all with perfect lines.

She entered a small but comfortable room, with a velvet white couch, the same blue walls and an aquarium on the corner, with rare species of marine creatures.

Her mom entered the room. Her eyes were swollen and red, and her lower lip bleeding. She must have bitten it hard like she always did when she was nervous or scared. Annie remembered the raw on it the following weeks after her father's disappearance.

Nobody knew what had happened to him. He used to work in open sea, fishing, in his little humble boat. One day, though, when Annie was eight, he said he had discovered something changing. That he had to go on a trip for a few weeks, maybe months, and he'd come back for her and her mother as soon as he could.

And he went, in his little humble boat. But he never came back. Not after weeks, not after months, not after years. He had probably been swallowed by the waves, eaten by the sharks, or died of hunger after getting lost.

It changed her mother, she became depressed for a long time, and she would scream his name to the sea, waiting for his boat to appear at the horizon. But it never did.

She recovered though. Annie always knew she was strong enough to leave the past behind and keep on with her life. Most people in District 4 sold fishes or other animals from the sea, but her mother used to sell shells she picked up at the coast and polished, renewing them.

It was a simple job but it would get them money enough to eat. Her shells were famous around the District but too fancy to be bought at any time, so it was usually a gift to someone at their birthday, or just another way for people to say 'I love you'. "Annie…" She started, but Annie just embraced her.

"Don't worry mom. I'll be back soon." The words left her mouth before she could think if she actually believed them. Of course she didn't. But she couldn't just tell her mother that she'd only be back to be buried.

Her mother didn't speak a word, and she left after giving her daughter a goodbye kiss. As expected, nobody else came for her. She was taken out to the train station, the cameras surrounding her. She felt relieved when she finally got into the train.

Soon enough, the view of the sea she had the pleasure to see every morning was hidden by the trees and she could only hope to see it again.


	4. Lifeless Corpses

Annie sat on the bed of her compartment on the train. It was a thousand times better than hers back home, but it still wasn't the same: It wasn't home.

She stared at herself in the mirror: Her hair falling neatly over her shoulders, a silky blue dress, just like the sea. The only thing she brought with her from District 4, now. Stripping, she carefully folded the dress and left it on the bed, hoping no one would take it away. She put on a simple shirt and pants, both green, just light enough for her to feel comfortable.

Viveca knocked on the door, announcing dinner time. In the dinner compartment, Annie found a long table filled with fancy food from the Capitol. Well, that was an improvement after the fish every single day. Only Viveca and Mags were sitting yet. Viveca was respectfully waiting for the others to arrive to start eating, but the old woman was picking one grape at a time and throwing it into her mouth, swallowing it at once. Probably because she didn't have teeth to chew it.

Annie sit silently, staring at the plates with hunger, her stomach complaining about the lack of food he had received that day. Soon enough, Finnick and Meris arrived.

"Sorry for the delay," said Meris politely and sat next to Annie.

"Yeah, sorry." Said Finnick too, and took a sit next to Mags.

Finnick had bronze hair and sea-green eyes, just like Annie's. His skin was darker than the others', but still fair. Annie noticed he wore a tired expression. Maybe it was the long day, or just the thought of having to watch two tributes he trained dying again. Either way, he stood quiet throughout the meal. Meris had to start the conversation:

"So, what are we doing next? " He asked.

"After dinner, we're watching the Reaping on other districts." Replied Viveca patiently.

"And when do we get to the Capitol? " Asked Annie nervously. She wasn't much of a talking person, but the question was hanging on her tongue. The sooner it all finished, the better.

"Tomorrow afternoon. District 4 is closer to the Capitol than many other Districts, so the trip is quicker."

"Oh, I see." No other words exchanged.

After everyone had finished eating, the walked to the TV room, to watch the recap of the Reapings. Annie learned a few names: the girl from 1 was called Marcella and the boy from 2, Tarin. They both had volunteered and seemed really confident of themselves.

In District 8, they called a girl named Mira Aiden. As soon as her name was called, there was a painful scream from the crowd. The camera focused for a moment on a boy that was extremely similar to her: burgundy hair and eyes, long nose and ears and freckles. The grief was clear on his face.

That's all she could memorize. It was so many names, so many people who were going to be dead in just a week. It made Annie nauseous.

"I need some sleep," she said, feeling dizzy with the thought of corpses and blood. She got up from the couch trembling.

"Hey, do you need help?" Asked Meris, who had noticed she wasn't feeling well.

"No, I'm fine."

But as soon as she got to her room, she ran into the bathroom and let all the food she had just eaten out of her stomach. She could only keep watching scenes from other Games, thinking of the brutal deaths, the torture: She'd most probably go through all of that.

Sitting on the dirty floor, she was almost passing out. Maybe she should just end this right now, kill herself somehow. It'd hurt less.

She had probably made a lot of noise, because Finnick stood at her door, noticing the mess she had made and her pitiful state. He didn't ask, though. Because he had already felt it before.

He helped clean her face with a damp cloth, and she let him. She was too weak to even move. Carrying her to her bed, he put her down on the mattress.

"Sorry for… this." Annie managed to say. She hated giving people work to do because of the mess she had made. But Finnick just shook his head.

"Don't worry. You're not the first." He said, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Annie pictured her lifeless corpse before she was pulled into the darkness of the sleep.


	5. Dead Fish

Shining. That was the word which described the Capitol the best. The change of scenarios was huge: from small houses huddled on the coast to tall buildings, with loud music and flashing lights.

It had been one day since the crew from District 4 had gotten to the Capitol, and that night was the entrance of the tributes. Annie sat at her preparation room, her prep team surrounding her and covering her with make-up and jewelry. She hadn't opened her mouth since she had arrived in the Capitol. She just didn't feel like it. All the people that were originally born there that she had seen or had spoken to her were superficial and annoying, and so was her prep team.

When they asked her questions, she'd only nod as a 'yes' or 'no', but as soon as they realized she was uncomfortable, they stopped talking, keeping their concentration into their work. When they finished, they left and her stylist entered.

He introduced himself as Quinlan. She guessed he was around 30 years old: his short hair was spiky and blonde with streaks of purple, matching his violet and obviously fake eyes. His skin was fair but every piece Annie's eyes could see were tattooed, except for the face. His clothes were gold and silver, with many accessories. Annie wanted to puke.

- Hello, Annie. – He told her before starting his work. – Just so you know, I'm not the talking type. So I'd be content if we didn't speak to each other, okay? I like to just do my work, no affection, no kind words or cheers. So, silence, okay?

That sounded arrogant, but Annie didn't want to talk, anyway. Maybe it'd be better that way: Just friendly enough to be in the same room, but not enough to care about each other. Maybe he had already lost too many tributes he had prepared. She could understand that.

They spent an hour in silence. Quinlan analyzed Annie's body, fixed what he wanted on her make-up, fixed her perfect curls on her right shoulder with a special spray, and then put her into her outfit.

Annie looked into the mirror: She was sitting on a small bench, her eyes surrounded by blue and green shadow, perfect skin, blue lips, long eyelashes. But her clothes were like a costume; Medium sized fake shells covered her breasts, silver lines painted on her collar bone and belly, and from her waist down, she had a tail, made by fake blue scales. She was a mermaid.

Therefore, she was unable to walk. Finnick had to carry her down to the carriages, since he was the strongest one around. While they walked down the corridor, Annie remembered the other night, how he also had to carry her to bed.

- Well, can't say I'm not the first one now, right? – She said, reminding what he had told her that night. His frown went away just for a moment.

- Now I can't. – Finnick answered. – But I'm used to carrying dead fish around, so I guess there's not much of a difference.

He was mocking her, calling her a dead fish. Probably because she hadn't spoken much since they'd got there. Even though Annie knew it was a joke, she didn't find it funny. After all, what did he expect from her? To be sauntering around while she knew she was going to be dead soon?

- Well, you haven't been much of a dolphin either. – She replied.

- I thought you didn't like to talk, Annie. – He said.

- I do it when it's necessary, Finnick.

- Didn't seem necessary to bring up that night, though.

She didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't say anything until they got to the carriages and he put her on the bench. The carriage was like an open oyster, with many colors, pearls, and white horses leading it.

Not much later, Meris arrived. Annie had to admit he was just as stunning as her: His hair was cut, and now wasn't long enough to reach his shoulders. He was dressed only with shorts covered with seaweed and other things that reminded her of the sea, but still left his slim and kind of strong body showing.

As soon as he found his place on the carriage, the opening began and the District 1 tributes entered the arched trail that the carriages traveled. Soon enough, they were in.

The screams from the Capitol abruptly infiltrated Annie's ears, and the lights blinded her for a moment. But she got used to it, and started waving at the audience, a big smile on her lips. She wasn't happy, but faking was the way. Looking at her and Meris on the screen, she realized how marine they looked: a mermaid and a sea prince, two pearls from an oyster, shiny and fancy.

The other tributes were just as incredible: District 1 covered in jewelry, gold, silver and shiny things, definetly drawing attention from everyone; District 3 in suits made entirely of batteries, pieces of machines and other technological stuff; District 10, with animal prints and make-up.

When they entered the preparation room again, Finnick had to carry Annie back to her room, where she could remove the custome and make-up.

- Not bad for a dead fish, Annie. – He told her, and she laughed.


	6. Beginning

**Thank you for following with my fanfiction! I really appreciate the comments I get every now and then, it means a lot to me!**

**After the chapter, Annie will be in the Arena, so we get to see more action!**

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•

It was the last day of training. Annie had been to all of the stations: axes, climbing, tridents, and the others, but none had fit her perfectly. She did well on a few, but horribly on most.

She tried to prepare herself for whatever might happen in the arena, going to the edible insects and plants stations, which didn't get many other tributes: most of them practiced at more combat stations. She had practiced that, too: swords and tridents didn't work out. The best she could do was with a knife, but she didn't think it was enough for her survival. Maybe she'd just hide for the entirety of the Games.

Meris, though, was talented: He couldn't manage a trident as Finnick, of course, but he could use almost everything as a weapon, and he was really agile with hand-to-hand combat. The Careers had their eyes on him.

"Annie, this is your last day. Time to make the deal with the Careers." Finnick told her before she entered the room.

She didn't want to do it, though. They were murderous, dangerous tributes, and she was so weak it was certain they'd kill her as soon as possible. But Meris had made the deal, so she wasn't really sure.

Annie had decided that this time, where everyone and you are probably going to die, it's best to stay alone.

•

"Tell us, Annie Cresta, how did you achieve that 7, in training?" asked Caesar Flickerman.

This year, his hair was a dark green. He had the same charismatic smile on his lips, and looked really interested in his talk with Annie.

She wore a blue silky dress, and when she moved, it looked like waves engulfed her body. Her face had blue paintings and her hair was high, in a bun, showing her nude shoulders, a delicate necklace around her neck.

The truth is, Annie really didn't know how she achieved that seven. In her training session, she had thrown some knifes on targets and climbed blocks with different surfaces. To be honest, she thought of herself as really quick and silent, and it was a good thing to have with you in the Arena.

"Oh, I don't know. A few things and I got there." She said honestly.

"Well, then I bet your competitors must be prepared for those few things, right?" Joked Caesar, and the audience laughed with him.

The interview proceeded with other questions: what motivated her to win the games, for what she responded, her home. This led to another question, which led to another and another until the 3 minutes she had were gone.

Annie couldn't tell if they had liked her or not: She tried not to talk much, since words weren't her strength, but she wasn't grumpy. Meris was incredible, though: He joked, said how he believed he had a chance of winning. He wore formal clothes that matched Annie's, with the same blue silk. Together, they were the ocean.

The other tributes followed: Mira, from District 8, was probably the best-dressed in the room. Her dress was strapless and ended higher than her knees. It was mostly cream, but it was patchwork, so there were purple, blue, orange, and many other colors of cloths, with polka-dots, stripes, stars and other patterns. She wore gleaming high-heels and her burgundy hair was pulled back with a velvet ribbon, her face covered in make-up.

She looked more like a Capitol citizen than a poor girl from District 8, and this annoyed Annie. When Caesar complimented her dress, she boasted:

"Oh, thank you! Actually, when I saw the first version of the dress, I told myself I had to make a few changes. And my stylist listened to me and let me change it the way I wanted. Don't you think the result is marvelous?"

"So you like to create clothes, Mira?"

"Yes I do, Caesar, but in District 8 there are not many opportunities to practice my hobby, is there?"

Annie felt like smacking that girl in the face: a few days from her death and she was busy fixing clothes that would be seen by the people who wanted to watch her death?

There was also the 12 years-old girl from 10 and a really nervous 18 year-old boy from District 12, who would hardly speak and only looked around, paranoid.

When it was over, everyone went to their respective floors. Annie was about to enter her room when a hand touched her shoulder, she turned around swiftly, smacking the hand off her shoulder, only to find it was Finnick.

"Relax, it's me. I don't bite."

"I'm sorry. I think I'm already acting as if I'm inside the Arena. In the Games." Said Annie.

"Oh, Annie. I don't think the Games only happen inside the Arena." Said Finnick, but before Annie could ask what that was supposed to mean, he continued. "So, did you make the deal with the Careers?"

"No." Said Annie at once.

Finnick's face contracted from shock, to disappointment, and then anger.

"I told you clearly to make the deal!"

"Yeah, you did, but I didn't want to do it!"

"Annie, what the hell were you thinking?" He drove his fist into the wall right next to her, her heart skipping a beat with the sound. "I'm your mentor, I know what's best for you!"

"No, you don't! Nobody knows! And I refuse to join a pack of assassins, Finnick!" Annie said, her voice high-pitched, how it always got when she was mad.

"Everybody is an assassin in there, Annie. You won't have peace, if that's what you're looking for!"

"Honestly, Finnick, I think I can handle myself." She probably couldn't, but it was best to think that it was true.

"No, Annie, you can't. That's why you need strong allies, like the Careers!"

"I'm not a baby, Finnick! I'm not weak!"

"Yes, you are!"

That hurt like a bullet, and Annie lost her words. Finnick realized what he had said right after he said it. Annie was already entering her room, but he gripped her wrist.

"No, Annie, I didn't mean it like it that-"

"You did." She felt the tears accumulating in her eyes.

"No! I just want you and Meris to win. It's impossible, but the least I can do is give you both equal chances of winning, and it's not equal if you stay alone, Annie."

"Then you can bet all your coins on Meris."

Finnick tried protesting again, but she shoved him into the wall with a strength she didn't know and a weakness he didn't use to have. Locking the door behind her, she curled in a ball on the floor, the tears finally spilling, rolling down her cheeks and wetting her dress.

Finnick knocked on the door, telling her how it was for her good, that he didn't mean to hurt her, that he trusted her. But soon he gave up and left.

•

The next day, she didn't see him before being taken off to the Arena. In her preparation room before going to her death, she dressed up with the clothes the Capitol gave her: loose pants with green camouflage pattern, a belt with pockets, a white t-shirt, a beige, thin coat, but warm on the inside, and comfortable boots.

When it was time for launch, she stood on the round platform, the glass closing around her as she told Quinlan goodbye. Soon, she was going up, surrounded by the darkness, and then the clarity reached her eyes.

It was a sunny day; To one side, there was a huge forest, with mountains at the end. To the other, a green meadow with plenty of trees, but not as thick as the forest. Even though the arena looked enormous, Annie could see the limits: a 30 meter glass barrier, with water on the other side, like the arena was placed between the waters of the sea. In the center of the circle of tributes, the Cornucopia.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the 70th Hunger Games begin!"


	7. Run

The round platform was her prison for sixty seconds now; dying now would be easier, but being blown up by ground mines should be painful. And even though it was kind of hard to admit, Finnick's view of Annie, of a weak little girl, made her strong enough to try to survive, at least.

Next to her, were mainly useless things, such as ropes about 3 centimenters long and small balls made of iron. Annie was aiming for something bigger, closer to the Cornucopia. Not far away from her was a medium sized purple pack, and a lot closer to the Cornucopia, a really keen knife. She wanted both.

The gong sounded, and chaos started. Annie instantly launched forward, running as fast as she could as the 23 other tributes ran to the same place she was going, the big horn. The Careers had already reached it, though, and the killing started. She heard screams and the sickening sound of an arrow penetrating into someone's flesh.

Annie had just grabbed the pack when she saw Marcella aiming a boulder at her. She raised her pack over her head just in time, the stone uselessly knocking against it. Now running toward the knife that still lied on the ground, Annie was one step from reaching it, when a overwhelming body threw her to the ground.

The world spun, her head was pounding. She looked up and saw the boy from District 5. He wasn't particularly strong, but he was bigger than her, and had the face of a psycho. He raised his fist that would for sure make some damage on her face, but he fell to the side before he could do that.

There was a hole on the side of his body, with blood pouring non-stop from it. Standing with a spear next to her, was Meris.

"Do you want me to kill you too? Go!" He screamed at her, and ran towards another tribute to kill. She was so shocked it took her a few seconds to get up and run to the big forest, leaving the knife behind.

After running as far as she could into the forest, Annie was too tired to keep on. She fell to the dirt in the middle of the trees, panting. Taking the pack from her back, she dropped it in front of her, opening it.

Inside, she found a few things: a small pack of chips, a bottle to keep water, a warm blanket large enough to cover her body, a small white box with a red cross, a flat yellow square of plastic for which Annie could find no use, and a hammer.

_A hammer?,_ she thought. It wasn't a weapon of choice on trainings, but it would have to do until she got something better. Besides, the back part could be used as a knife.

She expected water to be a big problem, but, apparently, it wouldn't be: She had just traveled to the center of the forest and a stream was in front of her. She didn't have a water purifier though, and would have to take a risk at all kind of sources she came to meet.

While she was filling the bottle, Annie heard the cannons: six. Six taken down in one day, and most of the survivors were probably hurt badly, or at least enough to slow them down.

I have to go further, she thought, and got to her feet. The pack on her back, hammer in hand, Annie Cresta walked silently between the trees. The temperature was fresh, and her flannel coat was enough to keep her warm. After 3 hours of silent walking, the sun was starting to sink below the horizon. Annie jumped when the silence of the forest was interrupted by a cannon. Only now she wondered who had died.

Certainly the boy from 5, and probably from 12 too: he looked so helpless, he couldn't have lasted long. Maybe the little girl from 10. Meris wasn't a big option since he was with the careers, but you never know.

There weren't many tributes she knew the name of or remembered remarkably. Besides those, there was only one more left…

A rather loud crack diverted Annie's attention to her behind. She was about to throw her hammer at the tribute, but the person was swifter and jumped on her, the cold tip of the knife lightly touching her nose.

"You raise that hammer again, and I will do a woodcut on your face. Leave it, and we shall be good." Said a female voice that Annie recognized right away.

"Mira Aiden." She said out loud as the name came to her head. Mira had her burgundy hair pulled back in a ponytail, her long nose was full of freckles and had two silver balls on each elf-ear. On her right ear, there was an earring with a pink and yellow feather.

"Annie Cresta. Now that we know each other's names, let me tell you how this will work, honey. Don't try to deny it, I'm stronger than you're and I have more ability in fighting." Said Mira closely, and Annie didn't try to protest. "I watched you during training, and you're not that good. But you seem to know quite a lot about insects and plants, knots and fires and other things that I didn't care training for. So if you help me with this part, I'll cover you up when another tribute tries to attack us. Savvy?"

"I don't want any allies." Answered Annie, conscious of the proximity of the knife to her face.

"Okay then, I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." Smiled Mira, though her eyes were cold. "You ally with me, or you and my knife will have problems."

There was no way out. After all, maybe the alliance could be a good thing: Mira surely wasn't someone Annie would get attached to, and she could try to sneak out at night if needed.

"Okay, fine." Said Annie, and Mira got off of her.

"So, what have you got?" She asked. Annie showed her what she found in her bag, and then asked Mira to show what her items were.

"Well, I've got this knife, two apples, and this beautiful sword." She showed Annie her sword, before guarded in it's case, on Mira's back: It had a long impeccable blade with a golden handle, a ruby inlaid in the center. It'd fill the belly of plenty of families in District 4.

"Must've been hard to grab a hold on this." Commented Annie.

"Actually I just had to fight the girl from 2, and it was pretty easy since I stabbed her in the arm. Other than that, I just grabbed the bag with the two apples and ran."

"Do you know of any deaths?" Annie asked.

"I saw a few bodies while running, but I only recognized the boy from 10 with an arrow through his neck, and I'm pretty sure the last person that died was the girl from 7, since when I last saw her she had her entrails hanging out of her stomach. I don't think there was a way of fixing it."

Annie breathed in sharply at the thought of organs falling out of a body.

"So, I think we should spend the night here." She said, looking around. The stream wasn't close right now, but it wasn't far away either. The trees were tall and with thick branches, great for sleep. "I think we should sleep up in the tree. It's safer."

"No," said Mira instantly. "I thrash around a lot, won't do. And also, this tree has thorns." And it really did, Annie realized with a closer look.

"So we sleep on the ground."

This agreed, each of them took a sip of water and ate half of an apple. While they ate, the anthem played and the faces started appearing: The boys from 3 and 5; The girls from 6 and 7; The boys from 10 and 11 and the girl from 12.

Annie was impressed the boy from 12 hadn't died, but he probably would soon. There were 17 tributes now, a long fight ahead of her.

Annie agreed to stay awake for the night while Mira rested. They both nested near the tree, Mira covered by the blanket while Annie sat with wary eyes, her hammer on hand.

They stayed like that for an hour, and even though Mira had her eyes closed and stood silent, Annie could tell she wasn't sleeping.

"That boy who screamed for you at the Reaping. He's your brother?" Annie asked.

Mira took a moment to answer:

"Yes, my twin Amani."

Twin, that makes sense, Annie thought. Even for a boy and a girl, they were much alike.

"Why didn't he volunteer to take the boy tribute's place?" Asked Annie.

"He wanted to, but when we were 12, we made an agreement not to volunteer for each other. We knew there'd be a time when it'd come down to the two of us, and we wouldn't be able to kill each other. Besides, someone has to stay with our parents."

Annie imagined how it must be like to watch your sibling die. She was an only child, but imagining that made her sick.

"But I promised him I would come back, you know," Mira said that in a way that sounded like a warning, that she would not go down without a fight, but she dropped it. "He's the most special thing I have."

"I understand," said Annie. "Go to sleep, Mira."

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?" Asked Mira.

"No, I'm fine." And she really was. Too terrified to close her eyes yet.

"Well, then," she heard Mira turning around in the middle of the leaves, "Goodnight Annie."

"Goodnight, Mira."


	8. What it Represents

**First of all, forgive me for taking so long to post the next chapter! It was being hard for me to write it, but it's here now! Thanks for following my fanfiction, it means a lot to me!**

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><p>Annie woke Mira up when the sun was about to rise.<p>

"I think it's better if we hunt now when it's still kinda dark." She said, and Mira agreed.

She hadn't seen any animals yet, but for sure there were at least a few around, or most tributes would starve. They just had to walk and pay attention to every little sound; it shouldn't be long until they found something.

But one hour passed, the light of the sun already lighting the forest, and they had seen nothing. They walked along the river, taking gulps of water and filling Annie's bottle. Annie kept her hammer on hand, and the purple pack on the back. The sword Mira had wasn't appropriate for hunting, so she just kept it inside the case on her back, with the knife on hand.

Mira was obviously the impatient type. She wheezed and pouted and Annie just rolled her eyes at the attitude. She wasn't used to going hunting either: In District 4, she never crossed the borders. It was impossible. And the only way she knew how to get food was fishing, but it was'nt useful at the stream: it was too shallow, and she saw no fishes swimming by.

When 2 hours had passed, Mira dropped to the ground next to a tree and said:

"I give up. We've been walking for hours now and no sign of any freaking animal!"

"You just have to be more patient," said Annie, standing in front of her and waiting for her to get up and keep walking. "The animals obviously won't run towards us, Mira. They don't want to be eaten. You're being too stub…"

But Mira made her stop, her eyes widened and she put her her finger on her lips, clearly telling Annie to stop talking. She nodded her head to some part of the forest behind Annie.

Annie turned around silently, gripping her hammer. She spotted a baby deer, small but still large enough to feed her and Mira for days before the meat rot. He noticed them, obviously, but didn't know what to think. He just stood there, waiting. Annie wondered where his mother was.

She raised her hammer, aiming at the animal's neck, and flung it forward. It spun in the air several times and before the deer could run from its reach. The keen part sunk into his flesh, right at the base of the neck.

The animal made a sharp sound of pain and fell to the ground after Mira's knife sunk into his back thigh. Annie jumped over the stream and kneed next to the deer. If he kept making those sounds, other people might hear.

She took out her hammer, blood splattering from the hole. The deer thrashed around and tried to escape, though he'd never even get up with his injured leg. It killed Annie inside to murder such a small, innocent animal, a baby yet. But it was necessary.

She knocked the round end of the hammer against the animal's skull, and the damage was obvious as he whimpered and stopped moving with the internal bleeding. Soon enough, he was dead.

Mira lowered herself next to Annie, and noticed the nauseous expression on her face.

"You want me to gather the meat?" Mira asked, taking her knife out the deer's leg. Annie nodded and stood, turning her back to the animal and washing her face on the stream. She heard Mira working, her knife cutting out the head and tearing away the skin, separating the limbs from the torso.

"Where did you learn how to prepare meat?" Asked Annie, still keeping her eyes onto the water.

"My parents bought the animals back home, but me and my brother were the ones to cook it, and we were taught by my mom." Mira answered.

Annie rarely ate anything that wasn't fish, and when she did, it was her mom who did the work.

"Annie, we have to cook the meat before eating, you know that right?" Said Mira, and Annie nodded. "Build a fire, we'll cook it quickly and then keep moving before someone notices the smoke."

Even though she was still disgusted, Annie knew she couldn't leave it all to Mira. So she gathered pieces of wood around the forest and built a fire with what she'd learned, quickly rubbing one piece against another. It took a while but finally she got a spark and lit the whole fire.

She and Mira turned the pieces over the flames, toasting them, and when they were over they packed the pieces into the bag, leaving only a thigh out at which they took bites every now and then while walking away from the extinguished fire, that still let out smoke into the air.

While eating the, she couldn't deny, delicious meat, Annie noticed the bright yellow and pink of Mira's earring at the corner of her eye.

"What's that?" She asked Mira, pointing to the earring.

Instantly, the girl raised one hand and held to the feather, as if it could evaporate at any time.

"My brother gave me. When we were little, we used to play around our District's square, chasing birds that had feathers just like this, yellow and pink." She said, but she didn't look at Annie, lost in memories. "He picked one up and with some wire he, uhm, found at the floor," Annie understood he didn't find it at the floor, probably had stolen from a factory, but it was a dangerous thing to say live to all Panem. "He created this earring, because he knew I loved jewelry but we couldn't afford it."

"I had a pierced ear, but no earrings. So he gave me this for birthday, and I use it almost all the time. It's like I'm connected to him whenever I am as long as I'm wearing this."

Mira cleared her throat, blushing, embarrassed for sharing such a deep and meaningful thing. Annie didn't want to make her more uncomfortable, so she changed subject.

"What about those metallic balls at the top of your ears?" She asked.

"Oh, these," Mira looked glad with the conversation handing to something less sentimental. "I found them on the floor too and pierced my ear to put them on. I like it a lot."

And Annie did like it too. It fit Mira and her personality, bold, unique, apparently a silent rebel.

It was unusual at District 4 for people to bother with fashion, and Annie thought of how she had judged Mira for caring so much about it when there were plenty of other things to care about. But now she understood it wasn't just about the looks, it was about what it represented.

Suddenly she felt more attached to Mira than one day before. She could act strong and fierce and mean, but it was clear that she truly was just as terrified as Annie and all she wanted was to come home to her brother, even if she had to kill for it.

They kept talking while moving for nowhere really, just far from the fire. Sharing their lifes back in their Districts, how it worked, since it was rare to get any news on any other Districts but yours. Annie told her how she picked up shells at the shore, helped her mother renew them, sometimes did jewelry with it, and sold it at the streets, in a small tent in the middle of other huddled tents, the air smelling like fish and people crowded the streets to buy their meal, most of them skipping the fancy shells that they couldn't afford. But it was okay, because when someone bought something from them, the price was enough for a few days.

And Mira told Annie about how she and her brother worked at a factory, producing silks that were sent to the Capitol. It was long, tiring, and the salary wasn't good enough for all the work, but it was the best they would find. Their mother worked at the same factory, but their father would be responsible for collecting the packages of the multiple factories and organizing them, a District 6 train taking them away to the various Districts.

Annie doubted the Capitol was passing this to all Panem, since this kind of information usually wasn't released.

After finishing the deer's thigh and walking for another hour or more, they sat a little farther from the stream to rest. Annie took the white box with a red cross from the pack and opened it: inside she found a smaller box with 3 band-aids, a roll of medical adhesive tape, 3 painkillers and two syringes filled with a dark purple fluid. She thought it was probably the best thing she could've found.

Her eyes were closing all the time, and Mira insisted she slept, the sun starting to fall at the sky. Annie didn't try to argue; she laid against a tree and fell asleep instantly.

Minutes passed before she woke up with Mira screaming her name. She stood, her heart thumping against her chest faster than any time before. Mira had her sword on hand and fought with another tribute, the boy from 9. He carried only an axe and the blade of his weapon shocked against Mira's when she tried to slice him.

But what impressed Annie the most was the boy's state: his skin was greenish, with purple bags under his red eyes, and it surprised Annie he had enough strength to stand. He was obviously sick.

In the moment Mira looked back to Annie, asking for help with her eyes, the blade of his axe cut her stomach, not deeply, but enough for Mira to cry in pain and the boy shove the end of his axe into Mira's temple, knocking her to the ground.

Annie took her hammer out of her belt and headed for the boy. He raised his axe over his head and tried to hit it against Annie's head, but she raised her hammer and the blade only knocked against the metal of the hammer.

Annie shoved the keen side of the hammer into the boy's shoulder, cutting his flesh, and he snarled in rage and pain, trying to cut out Annie's arm but only scratching it as she moved swiftly to the side. Annie smacked the round end on his cheek, feeling his teeth against the metal. He turned around and slashed at the top of her chest, then kicked her in the stomach sending her flying against a tree, the world blinking after her head hit the bark.

He didn't bother to kill her and Mira though. He desperately ran for the pack on the ground, sweating. He opened it and took out the medical kit.

It was weird that he ran directly to in, Annie thought. He must have had known they had it, which meant he was watching them.

Annie looked to her side, where Mira was moaning on the ground, blood staining her shirt and her hand on her head, where she was hit. Looking back at the boy, she saw him open the kit and take out one of the syringes. Without thinking twice, he shoved the needle into his arm, pressing the other end and sending all the fluid into his veins.

Not more than 5 seconds later, he dropped to the side, dead.


	9. Nightlock

Right after the cannon fired, Annie crawled to the boy's body and the medical kit. His open eyes were glassy and his mouth was softly open, the syringe still on his palm. Annie took the second syringe and put a drop of the liquid on her finger, leaning in to smell it. The scent was sweet, but Annie recognized right away the deadly berry. Nightlock.

She put the syringe back in the kit and took the whole box with her, crawling back to Mira. Her head still hurt and she wouldn't be able to get up without falling again. Sitting next to Mira, she rolled up the girl's shirt, revealing a long but shallow cut on her belly, yet blood poured out of it.

It was too long to be covered by the band-aids, so Annie took out the medical adhesive tape and put a strap over the cut. It should be some special item made by the Capitol, because the tape stopped the bleeding just as it touched the wound.

Mira still moaned though, so Annie gave her a painkiller for the headache and took one herself, leaving only one left. The relief was instant: it still ached, but much more less than before and now she could stand up. Throwing the purple pack over her shoulder, Annie kneed by the boy's body, trembling, and searched for his pockets, finding half of a bread. She didn't need an axe, so she just left it by his body and walked away as fast as possible.

Grabbing Mira by the wrist, she pulled her up and put her arm across her own shoulders, helping her walk.

"My sword," reminded Mira, and Annie lowered herself to grab it.

"What the hell just happened back there?" Mira croaked, while Annie took them to the stream.

"In the syringes, it wasn't medicine. It was nightlock." Answered Annie, putting Mira down by the water.

"Nightlock?" Mira asked, taking a piece of the bread from Annie's hand and bitting it.

"I learned about them during Training. They're deadly berries that kill you instantly. The syringes were a trick. The boy was clearly sick, he thought the 'medicine' in the syringes would save him and had it in his veins," explained Annie. She told Mira to lay down while she put water around her wound to clean out all the blood.

Taking off her flannel shirt, Annie put part of its sleeve into the water and then rubbed it on Mira's belly, trying as hard as she could not to get too close to the cut. Mira cried out when she did, but besides that, she only ate from the bread. Meanwhile, a hovercraft hovered now too far from them, a big claw lowering from it and grabbing the body of the boy from 9.

They were both surprised when another cannon fired, and Annie tried to wonder who it was, but it could be almost anyone.

When she was done cleaning, Annie put her shirt back on though it's sleeve was now reddish and ate another half of an apple, drinking from the stream. The night had fallen and they were too tired and wounded to keep walking, so they decided to sleep on the other side of the stream, not too far away though.

Annie still didn't like the idea of sleeping on the ground, exposed to all kinds of animals and insects, but there was no way to convince Mira of going up in the trees, even more now that she was hurt in the belly. So she made something similar to a bed with fallen leafs and covered both of them with the blanket, though they weren't entirely covered since it was made only for one person.

The anthem played and they watched through the trees: The boy from 9 and the girl from 11. It was a lack of deaths for the second day in the Arena.

"You should sleep, Mira."

Even though Annie was really tired, she knew Mira was more hurt physically.

"Wake me up when it's my turn, okay?" Said Mira, closing her eyes and falling asleep instantly.

Annie kept her eyes open. She was horrified by what she had just gone through. Fighting a boy around her age, dangerously sick. Watching him cut Mira. Then seeing him desperately shoving a needle inside his arm, thinking it'd save his life, when instead the poison of the nightlock killed him instantly.

It all disgusted her. How they had to fight to continue alive, to go back home. How 23 of them were destined to be most probably murdered, their families craving for their child back in their District.

She thought of her mother, back in District 4, watching the Games with everyone else on the square since they didn't have their own TV, praying for her daughter but deep inside knowing that Annie had low chances of coming back. So fragile, so innocent.

She remembered Finnick's words, telling her she was weak and wouldn't make it without help. She looked to the side where Mira slept. Mira, who was her said help. Only one of them would come home, and it'd most probably be Mira. Annie wanted it to be Mira, if it wasn't her: she had a brother and parents waiting for her, and she was so strong and an inspiration.

Annie took another thigh out of the pack, eating it slowly. After 2 hours of watching the forest around them, she woke Mira up. Mira ate while Annie slept.

She was woken up about an hour later when a cannon sounded. It was still dark and Annie figured it'd take around an hour for the sun to rise.

"You know, I think we should stay here," said Annie. "We don't really have where to go to. We have food and a stream close to us… We should just wait for the others to kill each other and hope nobody finds us here."

Mira agreed. They both got up and went to the stream, taking the pack with them. Even though it was shallow they washed themselves and their clothes. The cool water on her skin reminded Annie of the sea, in which she swam back home, the colorful fishes dancing next to her.

They sat by the rocks around the stream, eating the chips any had got with the pack and drinking water. The sun rose and they rested, sometimes exchanging memories they had from home, laughing. For those 2 hours, it was all peaceful and quiet and it was the first time since she had entered the Arena that Annie was somehow happy.

But it didn't last long. Lying down on the warm ground, Annie took the pack off her back and put it not far from them next to a tree. She had her eyes closed, her mind wandering to other places not the Arena, when Mira screamed.

"Hey!"

Annie sat up quickly, looking around. A small figure ran towards them, with long dark hair and brown eyes. She was about 12. Annie recognized her as soon as she came closer: the little girl from 10.

She looked scared, and Annie was getting up to stop her so they could ask her what was wrong when she flew past them, her hand closing around the packs strap and taking it with her.

Annie was paralyzed, and she didn't move until Mira reacted.

"Look out!"

Annie looked to the side where the girl came from: Tarin, the boy from 2, came running towards them, his bulky body much more agile than it seemed.

"Run! After her!" Screamed Annie, and she and Mira darted off, following the girl's shadow through the woods.

Twigs cut Annie's face and she tripped on rocks every now and then, desperation forcing her to move forward, Mira a few steps ahead of her. She kept her right hand on her hammer, ready to take it out of her belt when needed.

The girl, though small and quick, didn't have a big advantage on them: slowly, Annie and Mira were catching up with her. Though Tarin was also catching up with them.

When they reached a clearing, she stopped, forcing Mira and Annie to stop too. She turned around to them, throwing the pack on the floor between them. Her eyes were full of tears. She started talking just as Tarin reached them and stopped right behind them.

"I'm sorry… I didn't want to! But they forced me. I had to do this or they'd kill me." She mumbled, the tears pouring out and cleaning her dirty cheeks.

"Who forced you to what?" Asked Mira. Annie was too lost in thoughts to pick up the pack.

"The Careers! I had to attract you here… they'd kill me! I don't want to die! I don't want to die…"

She kept repeating those words while the Careers walked from behind the trees and encircled the three of them: Behind the girl from 10, was Marcella, holding a knife, her dark hair falling somehow neatly over he shoulders; on their right, the girl from 2, on both her hands gloves with spikes on the knuckles, some gift she must've got with sponsors; on her side, the boy from 1, with dirty blonde hair, holding a bow, an arrow already nocked, ready to fly; and by their left, was Meris, carrying his spear.

He looked so much different than the boy Annie saw in the reaping: chunks of his dark hair were missing, his blue eyes were less bright than before, his clothes were torn and he looked extremely tired. When Annie tried to make eye contact with him, he looked down.

She took her hammer out of the belt and Mira took her sword out of its case. This simple move made a battle erupt.

Annie turned around to face Tarin just as he ran at her with his fists only, which could be as harmful as any weapon. Annie dropped to the ground just as he tried to smack his fist on her head and shoved the keen end of her hammer inside his thigh as deep as it could, his scream of pain mixed with rage. She took it out, blood pouring, and got up again, now hitting his belly with the round part.

Tarin gave her a punch straight in the cheek, so strong it seemed like Annie's brain shook inside her head and she tasted blood. While she stumbled backwards, he hit her stomach with his knee, and she flew to the ground, her hammer slidding away from her reach.

She saw him raise his foot, ready to smash her head with the strength he'd got, the sounds of blade against blade and screams sounding around the clearing like a soundtrack. But he didn't.

Instead, he cried out in pain before his eyes rolled back and he fell with his back on the ground. Behind him stood Meris with his spear. He breathed heavily and trembles, but gave Annie his hand and helped her get up.

She was so surprised she couldn't say anything. A cannon fired for Tarin. This brought her back, so she darted towards her hammer and took it from the ground. Looking back at the other tributes, she saw all the fight.

Mira fought the girl from 2 and Marcella at the same time. Her sword clacked against the spikes of the gloves and the knife.

The girl from 10 tried to run away from the fight, but the boy from 1 sent an arrow flying into her skull, and she dropped dead just as the cannon fired.

He turned to fire at them but Meris' spear reached him first, penetrating his stomach and coming out through the other side. The cannon fired and Meris ran to him, freeing his spear.

Just then the two Career girls noticed the betrayal. Taking the moment of distraction from both girls, Mira slashed the girl from 2's left hand.

"Acacia!" cried out Marcella, and Annie assumed that was the girl's name.

Acacia fell to her knees, staring at her mutilated wrist, blood spilling from it non-stop. Mira watched with horror, too. Marcella stepped back slowly into the woods, shocked. Everybody was frozen.

After falling sideways into her own pool of blood, Acacia mumbled something lowly; her eyes widened, and she suddenly stopped moving. The cannon fired.

Screaming with rage, Marcella ran forward and buried her knife into Mira's back.

"No!" Screamed Annie, but Marcella drove the knife as deep as she could, and Mira stood with pain visible on her eyes. Just as Annie threw her hammer at Marcella, the girl dodged and took the knife out Mira's back, running into the forest and disappearing among the woods.

Annie ran to Mira and held her as she fell to the ground. She took a look at Mira's back and knew it was hopeless: Marcella had gone too deep.

"Oh, Mira…" said Annie, tears filling her eyes.

She laid Mira on her back and sobbed, conscious of Meris watching both of them from behind.

Mira slowly raised her right hand and took her feather earring from her ear. She grabbed Annie's hand, putting it on her palm.

"Give this to my brother, okay? Tell him I love him," said Mira, biting her lower lip. Annie felt the blood wetting her knees.

Annie nodded, and pressed Mira's hand tightly, her tears dripping.

"Annie, the nightlock," croaked Mira.

"Nightlock?" Asked Annie, confused. But then she understood. "Mira, I can't…"

"Please, Annie. It'll hurt less. Please." Mira stared her deep in the eyes, and Annie nodded.

Turning back, she grabbed the purple pack that still laid on the ground, and opened it, taking out the medical kit and from it getting the syringe, the dark purple of the nightlock darkening Annie's thoughts.

Her right hand, holding the syringe, trembled, and her left held on tightly to Mira.

"Annie?"

"Yes, Mira?" sobbed Annie.

"Thank you for being my friend," smiled Mira. Annie wanted to answer, but it felt like a big rock was blocking her throat, so she just nodded, smiling back.

Sending the nightlock into Mira's veins, Annie watched as the girl closed her eyes and the cannon sounded, ringing inside her head.


	10. Follow the Stream

"Annie."

Annie turned around to face Meris after a minute just holding on to Mira's hand like it was her sanity. He had blood on his shoes and looked at Annie and Mira's body with sadness filling his eyes.

"We have to move."

And even though Annie didn't want to leave Mira in this horrible place alone, she knew it was the right thing to do. So giving Mira's hand one last squeeze, she got up, putting the earring into her pocket.

She hadn't noticed the other three bodies but Mira's: Tarin, the boy from 1 and Acacia, with her hand fallen a few meters away from her.

She looked at Mira one last time, how she looked so peaceful laying down with her eyes closed if it wasn't for the pool of blood around her body. Three seconds and she wouldn't look back.

_One_. The grief of Mira's family when they received her pierced body in a coffin.

_Two_. The earring in her pocket that would probably never make it to Mira's brother.

_Three._ Her body buried among other children who died so unfairly, to be forgotten one day.

I won't let her be forgotten, Annie thought. She turned around and didn't look back.

Meris had already picked up her hammer when she walked to him, her pants damp with blood. He also carried a bag on his back.

"Where do we go, now?" She asked.

"Let's just follow the stream." Meris said, taking Annie's hand to help her walk along.

He pulled her through the trees, making his way to the stream, and Annie let him. She felt too weak to think and act. When they got there, he made her sit. She took off her pants, covering her bare legs with her flannel shirt, and remembered to take the earring out of the pocket before dunking the trousers into the water of the stream, instantly leaving the water around redder.

"Leave it up to me, you have to eat," said Meris, taking the pants from Annie and scrubbing it on a rock while she took a piece of the deer's toasted breast out of the bag and ate it.

When Meris was done, he left the wet piece of clothe upon a rock, even though the sun was already setting. He leaned next to Annie against a tree, and she gave him part of the meat, and they both ate silently for a few minutes until he turned to Annie.

"Annie, I know you're very tired and done right now, and I'm really truly sorry for your friend, she looked like she was fighter…"

"She _was_ a fighter," Annie said quickly, interrupting him.

"Yes, she was. But we have to tell each other what supplies we have."

"Only if you tell me what happened to you and the Careers since the Cornucopia," required Annie, turning her head to stare into his not-so-bright-anymore blue eyes. He sighed and nodded.

Annie told him what she had left: another piece of breast and two more thighs from the deer, one painkiller, three band-aids, half a roll of medical adhesive tape, a bottle filled with now warm water, the blanket, and the flat yellow square of plastic she still couldn't find a use for.

Meris had two packs of dehydrated fruits and a knife, only. He offered Annie the knife, but she refused. She would still keep using her hammer.

They filled the water bottle with fresh, cold one; Annie put a band-aid over the cut on her lip made by the punch, the relief instant. After finishing the breast, they decided to sleep on the top of the trees, leaving the trousers on the rock for it to dry when the sun came up again and hoping nobody would find it. While that, Annie had the flannel shirt and the blanket to cover her.

Swiftly, she climbed the thick trunk, this tree different from the ones she saw at the start of the Games, since it didn't have thorns. The branch was large enough for her to lay down and not fall, if she was careful not to thrash around at night. Meris climbed a tree next to Annie and lied down, too.

Annie put her flannel shirt under her legs to make it softer for her to put them down and covered herself with the blanket, feeling bad for not being able to cover both her and Meris, but he didn't seem cold and he had all his clothes on.

The anthem started playing and the faces showed up: The boy from 1, Acacia, Tarin and Mira. 10 tributes left.

"Tell me about your time with the Careers," asked Annie, wanting to keep her thoughts off Mira.

Meris sighed, but he started telling.

"First off, I never wanted to be with them. I didn't want to be part of a group of killers, but I joined them either way because I planned on turning against them when I had the chance, and it was when you and Mira appeared. Anyway, all the while until we meet, we basically hunted down the tributes who left trails or lit fires. They saw I didn't like doing this, though, so they constantly ignored me or Tarin punched me when I defended a tribute. I was on the edge of being killed. But finally we did this plan of bringing you two to the clearing where we'd have an advantage with the girl from 10, who we kidnapped. We sent Tarin after her when she ran to steal your pack so she wouldn't try to run away. I'm really sorry, Annie, I didn't want to go along with this plan, but they wouldn't listen to me."

Annie wanted to be mad at him for collaborating with the plan that killed Mira. She wanted to be mad at somebody. But she couldn't, it just wasn't fair. Meris never wanted for it to happen and he was helping her right now, supporting her when she felt so lost.

"Goodnight, Meris," was the only thing she said when he finished.

He nodded, "Goodnight, Annie."

The next day, both woke up to the sound of footsteps. Annie looked at Meris, who had his blue eyes also looking at her. Then they both looked down and spotted a shadow nearing them.

When it was closer, Annie recognized the tribute: It was the girl from 3. She was alone, carrying only a small black ball with 6 different colorful wires coming out of it.

She was trembling and murmuring to herself, looking down at the ball and her long fingers playing with the wires, changing their places and connections.

Annie heard Meris breath in heavily, and she quickly but silently threw her hammer at the girl. She looked up and saw the hammer spinning in her direction. She didn't try to dodge it. Instead, she opened her mouth wide open and screamed so loud Annie's ears rang and the thud of the round side of the hammer hitting her in the forehead was muffled.

She fell back but the cannon didn't sound yet, but Annie could already picture all the blood from the internal bleeding she had caused.

"Someone will find us. Quick, we have to go," said Meris.

Annie jumped down from the tree bringing the pack, the blanket and the shirt with her, and Meris did the same. She rushed to the girl, tying the shirt around her waist, and grabbed the hammer. After hesitating for a second, she picked up the small ball too.

Running along with Meris to the stream, she grabbed her trousers, drier than before but still kind of wet. She shoved them on quickly and they started running just as the cannon for the girl from 3 sounded.

Annie heard running behind her, so she dared to look over her shoulder: two tributes ran after them. The girl from five, her curly brown hair sticking on her sweaty face and her hands carrying a knife the length of Annie's forearm; and the boy from seven, carrying a blowgun and already raising it to his lips.

Annie cried out with desperation, and Meris also noticed the two tributes following them. Suddenly Annie felt a sharp pain on her nape and yelped, using her right hand to yank out of her flesh a piece of sharp glass, dirty with blood. Trembling, she threw it aside.

"Annie, the black ball!" Cried out Meris, panting in-between the words.

Looking at the small device on her hand, she spotted a small red circle.

"It's a bomb!"

She understood it instantly. Pressing the red button, she hurried throwing the ball over her shoulder, and seconds later an explosion echoed and threw her and Meris sprawling on the rocky grass, scratching her face and hurting her bones.

Grunting, she got to her knees and crawled to Meris. He was also cut and hurt, but nothing serious.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. How did you know about the bomb?" Annie asked, taking the pack off her back and opening it, grabbing the box with the red cross.

"We saw it among weapons in the Cornucopia. Tarin recognized it as a bomb from his classes about District 3 in his home District."

Opening the box, Annie put a band-aid over Meris's biggest cut, on the temple, and one on her chin. Meris also showed Annie a big bloody cut on his leg, which Annie covered with medical adhesive tape. She also covered the hole in her nape, ending the tape.

Helping him up, Annie asked:

"Keep on walking?"

"Keep on walking," Meris agreed.

They divided a pack of dehydrated fruits while walking along the stream, the water behind the glass barriers that surrounded the Arena glinting under the sun.

Annie was lost in thoughts and memories, looking down at the pebbles on the ground when Meris called her.

"Annie."

"Yes?"

"Look."

Annie raised her head, losing her breath as her eyes captured a huge, enormous lake.


	11. No Horizon

The stream snaked into the lake, the water flowing into the bigger pool, splashing softly, reminding Annie of the various sounds of water from the ocean back home.

She was speechless, amazed by the grandiosity of the lake. Still, it wasn't as good as home. The waters were darker, hiding who knows what kinds of creatures and surprises promised by the Capitol when her name was called.

"I missed it so much." Whispered Meris by her side. "The water. I know we've had it by our side all these days, but it's nothing like a hole filled until the top with it. Deep, large. It's never as good as home though, is it?"

Annie nodded, knowing what he meant. It'd never be good as their home because you could see what was behind it, a huge wall holding back more water, locking them in there. At their home, the horizon was nothing but sky, a promising endless ocean that could take them to new places.

Annie suddenly started running to the shore, Meris laughing and running just a few meters behind her. She dropped her pack by the rocks that surrounded the lake, and sat by them, taking off her shoes and diving her feet inside the water. It wasn't by far the safest thing to do. What if the water was toxic? What if it was full of germs or piranhas? The truth was Annie didn't really care. She missed being able to fit more than just a hand inside the water.

Meris sat by her, putting his feet by the side of hers. He sighed, and she sighed along, her vision stuck on the water on the other side of the glass. She couldn't spot any sign of life, though the water was crystal clear.

"I wanna stay here Meris." She said, turning to look at him, his blue eyes connecting with her sea-green ones. Somehow they seemed brighter than before. "I don't care if it's too exposed or anything. There are probably a lot of tributes around the stream area by now, and here is just as safe, if not more, than where we were before."

"Okay, Annie. I want to stay here too." He said, smiling. Meris softly grabbed Annie's hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. She wasn't bothered by that. They both came from the same place, they both knew how each other felt. Annie saw that as nothing but an act of friendship and reassurance. She gripped his hand, and he gripped hers back.

"I wish we could actually just be in a boat in the middle of this lake," Annie said, more for herself than Meris, but he was silently listening. "You know, just living in it? We could try fishing whatever swims in this lake. Nobody would be able to reach us."

"Annie…" Meris said, thoughtfully.

"I know it's not possible, but…"

"Annie." He repeated.

"I know, you don't need to tell me." She insisted, knowing Meris would reprimand her for wishing those things when they would not happen.

"Annie!" He snapped, turning his face to hers, shocking her with the sudden alteration of voice.

"What?" She asked, surprised, feeling frozen by his penetrating eyes.

"Give me your pack," he said, simply.

Confused, Annie reached for her pack, passing it to Meris. He opened it, his hands searching through the few things it carried. Finally, he took out the yellow square of plastic. Meris started fiddling with it, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, that is just a stupid piece of crap. It does nothing." Annie explained, waving her hand.

"No, Annie. Look." He said, stretching his arm and pointing with his finger at a small white ring over the yellow plastic. Meris got up to his feet.

"Step back."

Annie was surprised, but got up too and got a few meters away.

Meris grabbed the ring carefully between two fingers, and pulled it. In less than two seconds, the square unfolded and filled with air and in 5 seconds a yellow plastic boat, large enough to fit the two of them only.

"Woah," whispered Annie, walking to the boat and running her hand along the smooth surface. "How would you find that out?"

"My cousin back home was a lifeguard. He took me to his watching spot once in the beach, and it was full of those so they could quickly go into open sea to save someone. It's not the best boat for navigation, made of plastic and all, it's really fragile. But it's the best we've got."

Annie laughed, happiness filling her. She would navigate, just like she used to do back home!

She looked up at Meris, but he was already looking at her, a grin plastered on his face, too. Filled with joy, she ran to him and tackled the boy into a hug, relieved for having the possibility of being at a place she knew. He smelled like sweat and dirt, and Annie was sure she did too. But just hugging him was enough. It gave her a feeling of safety and she was finally sure she had a friend.

When they let go of each other after a minute, Annie said.

"We only need an oar and we're done. It must be easy to do one."

She and Meris searched for the thinnest tree they could find inside the forest close to the shore. It didn't take more than half an hour to find one. Meris cut it down with the knife, and Annie carved it so it'd have the format of an oak.

"We're done." She said, happily.

Meris and Annie entered the small boat, with only enough space for them and their bags. They pushed the boat into the water, the soft splashing sound like music to Annie's ears. Meris started rowing to anywhere, as far from the shore as possible.

For an hour, he and Annie switched rowing, until they ended up far enough from land, but still farther from the glass barrier. The sky was orange tinted and the sun making its way down, giving space to the stars and the moon.

It wasn't typical to navigate during the night in District 4, and Annie only did it once. She remembered it was her 6th birthday, and her father had taken her to the open sea, in his humble little boat. Peacekeepers were watching them, as always, but it didn't matter. The sense of freedom was refreshing and new. They stood up until late, though she didn't know the hours exactly, just laying on the wet wooden floor of the boat and staring at the stars and the moon. The same moon over her head right now, 9 years later. Oh, how much had things changed…

Meris took out of the pack the last piece of breast from the deer, still eatable. They shared it, taking gulps of water from the lake, just as sweet as the one from the stream. They hadn't seen any life swimming by them yet, though.

When Annie was so tired she wasn't able to keep her eyes open, she asked Meris to keep watch for a few hours, though there was no way someone would find them, or even see them in the darkness. It took some time until she fell asleep though. She was unable to keep thoughts of Mira away, her blood on her pants, the earring resting inside her pocket feeling heavier.

"Annie." She heard Meris call hours later. The sun was almost up already, the first rays of light from the morning reflecting on the dark water.

"Meris?" Annie called for him, her eyes blinking. She sat up properly and looked at him. He was rowing, and his face was pale, his dark hair messy.

"Is everything okay? Why are you rowing?" She asked, confused. Her eyes gazed around but nothing seemed to have changed. She could also see the shore from far away, getting closer with each row.

"I don't think it's safe here, Annie." He said, his voice weak. "I don't know what kind of creatures habits those waters, but they don't look good at all. I've seen a huge fish swim by a few times already and I really, really think we should get back to the shore."

Annie nodded repeatedly, searching the water but spotting nothing. "Okay, okay. How long have you been rowing?"

"Half an hour now." Meris said, absently. He seemed so desperate it was starting to freak Annie out.

"Do you want me to…?" Annie started saying, but she was interrupted by an enormous fish leaping out of the water meters away. It must've been around 15 meters long on length, the body covered in huge silver scales, thorns as big as Annie following the spine. It was obviously a muttation, created by the Capitol for what they liked: destruction.

"Shit." She whispered, and Meris started rowing faster, panting. Unable to help in any other way, Annie dunked her hands into the water and started rowing with them, which didn't help much but was the least she could do.

"Annie, I'm scared," Meris whispered quietly. Annie looked at his frightened, frightened face, and saw him for what he was: a child, only 14 years old, so young. With friends and family and a history back home. A history that had so much probability of ending before the proper end.

"I know." Was all she could say. There was no need in comforting him. She had no idea if it'd be okay, and he wasn't dumb to pretend he thought it would. There was no point in lying.

Looking behind Meris, Annie could see the huge shadow of the previous fish mutt approaching.

"Meris… Meris!" She yelled. He kept rowing though, not daring to look behind his shoulder. Five meters, four meters, three, two. "MERIS!"

Meris focused on her face and looked into her eyes with so much feeling. She could see the fear in them so clearly it hit like a bullet in the chest.

That was it, and a second after it was an explosion of water. She felt the pressure of the fish's head under them. It flung the boat into the air, and Annie wanted to scream so bad she couldn't tell if there even was sound or if she was just paralyzed with fear, her mouth wide open. She was flying, nothing to hold on to, not even Meris.

Because there he was, flying like her, shocked, tears flying from his eyes into empty air. Their bodies went up, and now they were falling back down into the water, and they wouldn't survive the impact unless they assumed the position Annie learned in her district: curl up into a ball then stretch arms forward and legs backward, falling vertically.

Meris had his arms and legs outstretched though, and before he could assume the right position, before he could do anything but look at Annie, the fish mutt jumped from his right and closed its huge sharp teeth around his head, and even though the sound of splashing and crashing water was so loud, Annie swore she could hear the flesh ripping, the bone breaking, Meris' yell of pain as his head was tore away from his body.

Then all the noise ceased, leaving Annie in an intense, horrifying silence. It was as if all the sound had been sucked from the world, like she was falling into nothingness. She was underwater, but it felt much worse.

Even through the dark water, Annie could see the fish mutt swimming a few meters away from her, and it did the worst thing possible: it spit Meris' head.

His eyes were dead open, his mouth too, his dark hair intact and moving slightly with the movement of the water.

Annie wanted to scream. She wanted to scream and scream until there was no voice left, until her vocal chords ripped and she went mute. His head floating just in the middle of her vision would be stuck in her memory forever, she knew. Despite the bright smiles she saw him give her, the warmth of his hug, the feeling of safety just from having him as company. All that resumed into his floating head.

Annie boosted herself up to surface, and as soon as she got out she felt the tears streaming down her cheeks into the treacherous water. She swam and swam, following the thin line of the shore. Her whole body ached, her heart felt pierced, her head spanned, and yet she did what she was best at: swam.

It felt like days, weeks had gone by when she grabbed the rocks and pulled herself up. She felt Meris' blood weighing her clothes, dripping from her hair, inside her shoes and forever and ever staining her skin.

Annie dropped down on her belly, and when she passed out, it felt like drowning.


	12. Weight

She was drowning. The feeling was new yet it seemed familiar. The salty water entered through her mouth and nostrils, slid down and filled her lungs. She was choking, something pulling at her foot, not letting her swim back to the surface which her open eyes, stinging with the salt, could see many meters away.

Thrashing around was no use. The grip got tighter and tighter, nails digging into the exposed skin of her ankle. She looked down. It was him, it was him. He wouldn't let her go. Him or the picture of his head floating in the water. And her lungs kept filling up, and she was losing consciousness… Then a cannon sounded, thunderous, ringing into her ears, bringing Annie back to reality.

Annie woke up sucking in a great amount of oxygen, coughing and feeling tears run down her dirty cheeks. She was lying in rough earth by the shore of the lake, her clothes damped with water, her dark hair sticking to her face.

She had barely woken up and the image came back to her mind, tormenting her, staring at her. Annie put her hands to her head and cried out lowly. She couldn't stay there anymore. It was a wicked, terrible lake.

She got up to her feet and found herself surprisingly heavy. Only then she realized she still had her hammer on her belt, which had probably slowed her down when she was swimming to the shore. The rest of the supplies, though, were completely gone. Down in the depths of the lake, if they had not been eaten by the fish mutt or other horrible creatures yet.

Annie felt extremely dirty in those clothes, like his blood clung to the fabric. Disgusted, she took off her flannel shirt, throwing it on the sand and backing away. The air was chilly but she would rather freeze to death than dress blood.

She took her hammer out of the belt, feeling its weight on her right palm. She could still see faint stains of blood on the metal, which made the hammer even heavier. She'd never felt so weak before. It was as if she was under a pile of things, gathering on her head and heart, barely letting her stand.

The sun was starting to set. When she and Meris were attacked by the fish mutt, it was late morning, so Annie supposed she'd slept for many hours. It was a miracle no one had found her.

Teeth chattering, she ran into the forest, always holding her hammer. Her wide open eyes played prank on her: she saw shadows sneaking through the trees, smiling wickedly. Cameras recording her every move, people enjoying her worst nightmare. It was a sick Game.

Meris's voice pronounced her name, right by her ear, echoing into her head. Annie put one hand against a tree and bent down, throwing up anything she had in her stomach, which wasn't much. Only then she realized she was famished, but the thought of food made her even more nauseous.

Annie was dizzy, but stopping now wasn't an option; what if they caught her? Tore her apart like they did with Meris? Only the thought made her breathing quicker. She ran like never before, the trees around her mixing into a twist of greens and browns, her feet automatically dodging trees and pulling her along. Move forward, forward, forward, can't stop, it's a chase, it's a Game, for whom? Forward, can't stop.

When she slowed her pace, not for free will but for her muscles, that couldn't keep on much more, Annie had lost track of time, but it must've been more than an hour: The sky was now dark, the shadows involving her like cold water, freezing her into the unknown territory. What kind of creatures lurked into those shadows, now?

She heard the anthem starting to play. Looking up through the leaves, she spotted Meris's innocent face among the stars, staring right into her eyes. Then the girl from 9, whose cannon woke Annie up earlier. Marcella, Annie, the boys from 6, 8 and 10. It was a surprise minor Districts had made it so far into the Games.

Annie fell to the ground, the fallen twigs crunching under her body. The air was much colder now that the heat from the running had gone away. Hugging herself, Annie bent her knees and pressed her torso against them, trying to stay as small as possible, keep the body heat high enough.

Her mind kept switching thoughts. Home, sea, mother, father, cold, food, Mira, home, heat, Arena, death, Meris, Mira, mother, parachute, darkness, shadows, Finnick, home, Meris, parachute, mutts, cold, sea… parachute?

Her sea-green eyes looked up. Yes, it was a parachute! She got up to her feet quickly, wondering what it'd be. Her feet felt frozen inside the boots, and it took her a few seconds to be able to actually move toward the parachute. It got stuck on a low branch of a tree. Annie threw her hammer at the strings that held the box to the actual parachute, cutting them and letting the content drop on the hard ground with a low thud.

After picking up her hammer, she crouched down next to the box. It was medium-sized, with a black '4' painted on two sides. With fingers swollen from the cold, Annie opened the box. Inside was a thick jacket, covered in brown velvet on the outside and sheep wool on the inside. Annie held it tightly in her hands, mouth open in exasperation. She dressed it, instantly feeling better, a sigh of relief slipping through her dry lips.

Annie wondered how Finnick had managed such a sponsor. It must've been really expensive, and she doubted she still had anyone rooting for her after she broke down. Yet, Finnick was a really famous tribute, with lots of contacts. Maybe he had managed to arrange something. Did that mean he still believed in her?

Closing her eyes with the comfortable heat, Annie whispered loudly enough for the cameras to catch the sound:

"Thank you."

Even with the jacket and not feeling cold, Annie couldn't fall asleep. Every time she came close to it, her brain would bring back memories of Meris and Mira, all the blood and the gore and the death: her heart races and she opens her eyes, scanning her surroundings, waiting for mutts to come out at any second.

But they didn't. The sun crept into the sky too slowly. It seemed to take an eternity, but finally the light rays splattered by Annie, revealing the same stillness of the forest except for a squirrel on top of a branch.

With the terrible hunger thrashing around inside her, Annie instinctively threw the hammer that had rest on her hand all night at the animal. It spun in the air and was quicker than the prey, hitting it right in the head.

With a faint squeak, the squirrel fell directly to the ground. Annie crawled to it like an animal herself, the wildness in her eyes disturbing. She grabbed the dead body of the squirrel with one hand and the hammer with the other. Putting her hammer into the belt and hanging the squirrel from it, too, she proceeded to get up and gather lots of twigs and branches.

It took her minutes to finally get a spark from rubbing a piece of wood against the other, but when she did, the flames were higher than expected. She twisted the squirrel over the flames, letting them lick the body, toasting the flesh. When finished, Annie extinguished the fire and used the back of the hammer's head to cut the squirrel into pieces and cut out the skin. She hid it all behind a bush, the bodiless head reminding her of Meris and making her sick again.

After throwing up, she put the squirrel meat on one of her belt's pocket and ran at full-speed forward, running away from the Lake, from the heads, from the memories of Mira and Meris, that ran along with her, pulling at her clothes, making her trip and sweat.

_I want to go home,_ she thought. But did she, really? Going home meant nightmares and tormenting memories for the rest of her life. It meant suffering, being at the hands of the Capitol, and even worse, watching her own tributes die inside those Games.

_No, _she corrected herself, _I want to die._

It was then that the forest broke apart and finished suddenly. Annie stepped into a large meadow, and faced a huge mountain.


End file.
